I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



B.X9.M-3 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, f 



/ 



Simplicity in the Christian Faith alike Scriptural 
and Poiverful. 



SERMON, 

DELIVERED ON THE MORNING OF LORD'S DAY, 
JULY 1, 1827, 

AT THE 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 



BY 31 ELLIS II I. MOTTE. 

(Formerly a Minister of the Episcopal Church.) 
REPRINTED FROM THE CHARLESTON EDITION. 

Q+ P 5 nt ^ d ?"J Vr i gh £ ( 5 astie Street ^ Sold als o by R. Hunter 
St. Paul s Church Yard ; Teulon and Fox, 67, Whitechapel : D. Ea- 
ton, 18/ , High Holborn, London. And the Booksellers in general. 

Price Four-pence. 

1827. 

6/ 



j t&1 



PREFACE. 



The circumstances under which this sermon is pub- 
lished, suggest the propriety of some explanation ; and 
the writer is willing to avail himself of the opportunity, 
to give a brief and simple statement of the reasons 
which have induced him to wave the long cherished 
predilections for retirement, which he was in hopes, 
when he entered the Ministry, he would be able to in- 
dulge in that life of hnmble obscurity. He would mi- 
tigate the severity of the condemnation which he can- 
not expect altogether to escape from his former asso- 
ciates. He knows too well by experience the power of 
old prejudices, to suppose that his own emancipation 
from some of the most popular and deeply-rooted, will 
be viewed by all with entire approbation. But he hopes 
for a candid construction from the considerate, who 
remember that as they judge, they shall be judged. 

He was brought up in the Episcopal Church. All 
his early associations attached him to it. It was natu- 
ral, therefore, when manhood brought with it an incli- 
nation to preach the Gospel, that he should prefer its 
Ministry. The claims and doctriues of the church he 
examined, as usual, under the bias of this preconceived 
preference ; and, reading too exclusively on one side, 
he of course yielded such an assent to its principles as 
admitted him to its orders. This proceeding he is not 



iv. 



disposed to justify. Something may be said in its ex- 
cuse on the ground of early habits, the influence of con- 
nexions, the wish of his family, the exclusive character 
of the books to which he had easiest access, and the 
limited knowledge of theology required for ordination. 
Still the equivocations to which he was driven in the 
construction he felt obliged to put upon the decidedly 
Calvinistic articles of his Church, he is prepared to ac- 
knowledge, deserve the reprobation of every ingenuous 
mind. So far as this, however, he was encouraged by 
the example of some of the best and wisest men in both 
the English and American churches ; for it is betraying 
no secret to say, that if only those were to throw a stone 
at him who are themselves without sin on this head, he 
would have but few blows to apprehend from his bre- 
thren of the Episcopal Ministry. 

The first few years after his ordination were spent in 
the wandering duties of a Missionary. This life pre- 
sented but few inducements to go into the laborious in- 
vestigation of profound points of theology. He yielded 
to the temptation which has overcome better men, and 
felt satisfied to be thankful for the peaceful enjoyments 
of his situation, without directing much attention to 
what was calculated to blast all his earthly hopes. His 
conscience did not reproach him, and lie trusted that 
he was as useful as his talents enabled him to be. Af- 
ter being settled some time, however, he began to be 
sensible of the narrowing tendency to mind and heart 
of confining his inquiries to one system of doctrines. 
But to doubt honestly and freely, he soon found, was, 
for himself at least, to be lost at once. Christianity 
stood firmer than ever in his convictions after all his 
investigations, but his ' orthodoxy' was shaken to its 
lowest foundations. It is due to what he now believes 
to be truth, to state the general principles on which he 
reformed his creed. 

It is allowed that the personal appearance of our Sa- 
viour did not prove him to be the Supreme God. 'He 
was in all things made like unto his brethren 7 in out- 



V. 



ward form. This stupendous fact then could be learn- 
ed only from his explicit assertion ; and when that as- 
sertion was made by him, the overwhelming astonish- 
ment and awe produced by it on his disciples would be 
related in the narrative, and would certainly impel 
them to record at least once this astounding declara- 
tion. Now where have they done so? Throughout the 
New Testament, not a passage has been found where 
Christ in direct and unperverted language says any 
thing like, ' I am Jehovah, as much as my Father is Je- 
hovah.' <I am very and eternal God, of one substance, 
power and eternity with the Father/ 

Patient examination of the original phraseology of 
the New Testament, satisfied the writer hereof that 
such a doctrine was not taught in it with sufficient dis- 
tinctness to authorize him to preach it as a condition 
of salvation. 

But from the distorted second-hand representations 
which he had received of the testimony of the early Fa- 
thers, he still felt confident that Ecclesiastical History 
was in favour of the doctrine. How much was he sur- 
prised to find, on looking a little nearer, that their tes- 
timony obviated the greatest difficulty in the Unitarian 
system, by authorizing us to refer the Trinitarian doc- 
trine of the Logos, to the Platonic and Gnostic philo- 
sophy, which was so much in vogue with most of the 
first learned converts to Christianity. The unlearned, 
we have reason to believe, continued Unitarian, until 
the Church gradually submitted to the authority of 
these speculative philosophers. The writer thus found, 
that he was compelled, with Augustine, to acknowledge 
his obligation to Plato for his belief in the Trinity. 

The result has been, that he felt called upon by con- 
science to leave the Episcopal Ministry. Still he per- 
ceived the propriety of proceeding with great hesitation 
in so serious a change ; and he thinks that he must 
now be acquitted of precipitation, when, after devoting 
nine months to reflection, inquiry and prayer, he has 
complied with requests to preach to a society formed 



VI. 



on the scriptural principle that, * whosoever believe th 
Jesus to be the Messiah, is born of God/ 

Had other motive beside the dictate of conscience 
been wanting to induce him to continue in that voca= 
tion to which Providence had called him, it might be 
found in his excusable desire not to lead an idle life. 
From other occupations he was precluded by incompe- 
tence, and the apprehensions of those with whom a 
Unitarian is confessedly a proscribed man; 'Habet 
foenum in cornu ; longe fuge.' 

With regard to the publication of this sermon, it is a 
measure of which the writer had not the slightest de- 
sign when it was preached. The first application for 
it was rejected with almost rude decision. He was ex- 
tremely unwilling to do any thing which might be con- 
strued into vindictive defiance to those with whom he 
has passed some of the happiest hours of his life. Many 
of them he loves as dearly as he can ever expect to love 
again any even of those who may be endeared to him 
by the sympathy of more congenial sentiments; for 
among them are almost all those to whom consangui- 
nity and youthful affection binds him. Why then 
should he ungratefully wound their partiality more than 
imperative duty required ? Controversy too he had pro- 
fessed to deprecate ; not from apprehension for his 
cause, but the consciousness that his temper would not 
be improved by it. After some time, however, it oc- 
curred to him that these very considerations called for 
compliance with the request of the publishing Commit- 
tee, for the Sermon is in fact a plea for peace and har- 
mony, and by no means a declaration of war. He felt 
himself without excuse on receiving the assurance of 
one, high in authority as an advocate for all that is kind 
and considerate, that "it could not hurt the feelings of 
any individual in this community, but was well calcu- 
lated to sooth every feeling of asperity in opponents." 



A SERMON, 



1 JOHN, V. 1. 

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, 
is born of God. 

Amoxg the blessings of God which in the 
hands of men have sometimes turned to heavy 
woes, not the least remarkable is the prescribed 
condition of admittance to his church. Observe 
what our heavenly Father requires in accord- 
ance with the simplicity that reigns in all his 
works, and then turn and see what ignorant man 
often exacts conformably to the awkward and 
complicated constitution of human systems. God 
asketh for the heart in its peaceful humility. 
Men too frequently demand the mind perplexed 
and tortured by the unconquerable difficulties 
of metaphysical speculation. There is vain 
mourning, and bitter distress in the anxious bo- 
som of many a humble aspirant to religion : 
there is envy and strife, opposition and hatred 
between the churches, whose professed object is 
the serene spirit p£ piety and love, whose com- 
mon guide and ruler is the Prince of Peace. 
Whence is the cause — - "'Jan have added to the 
commandite- ; and there may be 



s 



f 



reason to fear, the threat is partially fulfilling 
which was uttered in the vision of St. John " If 
any man shall add unto these things, God shall 
add unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book." May grace from on high, given us 
in the humility of our pretensions and the sim- 
plicity of our faith, enable us to escape them, 
and then " fear not, little flock \ for it is your 
father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 

What is the condition of admittance to his 
kingdom or church ? What makes us the sub- 
jects of Christ ? According to the scriptures, 
simply the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Messiah, the Anointed to office, the Son of God, 
the king of Israel ; for all these seem to be equi- 
valent titles, used to designate that remarkable 
personage who had been promised to the patri- 
archs, and foretold by the prophets, and who 
was expected in the world about the very time 
that Jesus of Nazareth appeared. 

I would proceed entirely on scriptural 
grounds ; and I beseech you, my friends, to ob- 
serve that the chief thing proposed to our belief 
in the New Testament is the official authority 
of Christ, not his personal nature. His follow- 
ers were admitted to his infant church on profes- 
sing their belief in his divine commission, as a 
messenger from God, not on professing their 
belief, that he was, either the Supreme Jehovah 
on the one hand, or the human son of Mary on 
the other. This will appear more strikingly if 



i 



9 



in reading the New Testament we sometimes 
substitute the word Messiah, which is his more 
proper official designation, in the place of the 
word Christ, which has now come to be used 
almost altogether as his personal name, though 
it has the same meaning with Messiah, one be- 
ing Greek and the other Hebrew, signifying 
the Anointed ; and anointing we know was a 
ceremony used among the Jews when inducting 
into certain offices, particularly those of Pro- 
phets, Priests, and Kings. 

Hear now the Angel announcing him to the 
shepherds, even at his birth, as (1) 6 a Saviour, 
which is the Messiah the Lord/ This was the 
character in which he was acknowledged and fol- 
lowed by his apostles through every sacrifice. 
Hear Andrew saying to his brother Simon, (2) 

• We have found the Messiah, which is, being 
interpreted, the Christ/ Hear Philip commu- 
nicating the great discovery to Nathanael, (3) 

* We have found him of whom Moses in the 
law, and the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Na- 
zareth, the son of Joseph/ Listen to the Savi- 
our himself discoursing with the woman of Sa- 
maria about the means of attaining eternal life, 
the end of all religion. He says to her. ' Who- 
soever believeth in me shall never die. Believ- 
est thou this ? (4) Now how is her answer ex- 
pressed ? i Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art 
the Messiah, the son of God, which should come 

(1) Luke ii. if. (2) John i. 41. (3) X. 45. (4> XL 26, 27, 



10 



into the world/ What was the faith that was 
sufficient to draw forth a special blessing upon 
Peter, and establish him in the rank of an apos- 
tle (5) 6 We believe and are sure, 5 says he, 'that 
thou art that Messiah, the Son of the living 
God/ What was the faith on which our Savi- 
our declared he would build his church so that the 
gates of hell should not prevail against it? 
What was it but simply this ? * Thou art the 
Messiah, the Son of the living God/ What 
candidly is the chief and fundamental declaration 
of the whole Gospel ? Why was it committed to 
writing and handed down to us, containing this 
assertion so often repeated, while we know that 
many astonishing miracles which were wrought 
are not mentioned in it ? Let St. John, the fa- 
vorite and most intimate friend of Jesus declare 
the end for which he wrote. (6) 6 Many other 
gigns/ he tells us, € truly did Jesus in the pre- 
sence of his disciples, which are not written in 
this book ; but these are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of 
God ; and that believing ye might have life 
through his name/ 

And what was it the apostles preached after 
their master's death ? The book of Acts is the 
history of the establishment of the first churches. 
What does it always exhibit as the first essential 
truth on which they were formed ? Read it 
throughout. St. Peter's first sermon converted 



f 5) John vi. 69. 



(6) XX. 30, SU 



11 



SOOO souls. What was the word which they 
so gladly received ? This was his conclusion 
which he urges on them with such command- 
ing emphasis ; c therefore let all the house of Is- 
rael know assuredly, that God hath made that 
same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and 
Messiah/ Philip goes to Samaria to build a 
church. What was his doctrine ? In one word, 
*■ the Messiah. 1 In short, the Apostles preached 
daily in the temple and in every house ; and 
what was their leading doctrine ? * They 
ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus, the 
Messiah/ But our time forbids further citations 
of authorities. In fact the variety of testimony 
to the point sets quotation at defiance, and there- 
fore must render it unnecessary to you who are 
familiar with the scriptures. You there see the 
leading doctrine taught as the foundation of our 
religion is, that Jesus was the Messiah, or what 
we have sufficient reason to believe was under- 
stood as a term of the same import, the Son of 
God. This is the faith that makes the christian. 
This is the faith, simple though it be, unpromis- 
ing as it may appear to him who knows no other 
faith but the profession of the lips, or the lan- 
guid supposition of the fancy, or the abstract 
and inoperative assent of the understanding, 
this is the faith through which we are born of 
God, and overcome the world. 

But how can these things be ? says the enthu- 
siast for faith, while in the very question he 



12 



evinces the doubting disposition of Nicodernus: 
How can belief in so simple a proposition ac- 
count for the prodigious effects ascribed to the 
energy of faith in the scriptures ? Now askest 
thou not this in forgetfulness or distrust of the 
power of the Most High ? Could not he who 
formed us, so constitute, or so control our facul- 
ties, that they should be affected, by any truth 
which he might present, to any degree or result 
which he might appoint ? But such a truth as 
this must naturally have wonderful efficacy, where 
it is received into the mind unclogged by any 
error and unopposed by any doubt, for it is un- 
belief in any degree that destroys the power of a 
creed, not the small number of articles in it. 
Now think what this truth implies ; — a mes- 
sage, and such a message, from the throne that 
stands above the universe ! Let its tenor be even 
unknown ; and still how many overwhelming 
ideas, how many astounding conceptions, glori- 
ous imaginings, thrilling hopes, lofty sentiments 
spring up at the thought, and set to work, as to 
the work of life and death, every principle in the 
soul which feels its solemn import. Let this one 
fact, that a message has arrived from heaven be 
suddenly communicated with entire conviction to 
the untaught savage of the desert, whose eyes 
have never been brightened with the moral light 
which blesses us around continually, and then 
away with him for ever to the remotest solitude 
of his wilderness \ and think you that this one 



13 



idea, in its isolated and sublime simplicity, will 
not command him, the whole man, so long as 
doubt is absent ? Iu his solitary musings his 
soul will feed upon it, till it shall be wholly en- 
grossed by the beauty and power of the thoughts 
that cluster round it, and his spirit will grow 
thereon till it has enlarged itself to the boundaries 
of time and the universe. He would be a theo- 
logian, and around this one simple truth that bles- 
ses him, would assemble faith, and hope, and love, 
God, Heaven, Eternity. But what would his 
little system of divinity be, compared w r ith the full 
and satisfying lessons which ive have received 
from the teaching of Jesus ? The gloriousness of 
his hope would be dim indeed beside tbe assurance 
of joy which we have derived from the detailed, 
explicit and repeated declarations of him who had 
the Spirit given him without measure. Brethren, 
you know it is in its details that the Gospel has 
made you blessed. It is the application to your- 
selves of each commanding assertion, each touch- 
ing appeal, each compassionate assurance, each 
tender promise that flowed from the lips of Jesus 
that has made your hearts leap for joy, It is the 
authority of his precepts and the persuasion of 
his most eloquent example that has kept you in 
the path of duty. Had he but stood upon the 
earth for a little while in cold and unpitying si- 
lence, and only stretched forth his hand to bend 
the iron rule of nature into acknowledgement of 
his credentials from the skies, that would have 
c 



14 



been much indeed in the darkness wherein the 
world was groping : for the Messenger sent 
would imply the existence and almost certainly 
the benevolent character of him who sent him ; 
and then for ever after you would have seen the 
God and Father of all, sitting at the head of his 
creation, and swaying the sceptre of universal 
providence. 

But now you have heard the beloved of the 
father speak, as never man spake before, and 
you now know, as philosophy in its loftiest soar- 
ings could never know, that your Father in 
heaven loves you, with an everlasting love, more 
tenderly than earthly father or mother can, and 
is watching over you, in every step you take, 
in every breath you draw, with a guardian care 
that will not fail, when the solicitude of human 
affection, the purest or most interested* shall be 
exhausted. He has sent you his Son. Jesus 
is come, your friend, my brethren, if you will 
have him such. He is come to tell you the won- 
ders of his Father's kingdom ; to persuade you 
with most moving earnestness to think some- 
times of them ; to arouse your slumbering mo- 
ral energies ; to awake your longing for peace 
and heaven ; to tempt you away from sin ; to 
win you to himself, to reconcile you to your neg- 
lected God, your forgotten Father. Will you 
not believe him when he tells you, that he has 
removed every obstacle that interposed between 
heaven and earth ? By the grace of his gospel, 



15 



the way is open, the path is plain, the ascent is 
easy ; all that is wanted is your wish to go, 
your struggle to be free. He has done his part 
at a heavy cost, and the tears that he shed, and 
the sufferings that he bore, and the death that 
he died for you in his love, proclaim that all is 
done, save that your hearts may not be melted 
by it to penitence, nor your resolutions braced 
by faith to the exquisite energy of endurance 
and of action, through life and through death, 
in the service of your merciful God, What 
wait you for ? Fear you there may be bars of 
adamantine strength across the portals of hea- 
ven ? Has not he said in the name of the most 
mighty, they shall be broken ? but you must 
put forth the arm, nerved by heavenly faith, to 
the task, and believe it is your sins alone that 
interpose the difficulty. Or weep you in the 
sorrow of a broken heart? Sink you in dismay 
at the troubles and hardships that beset your 
path in life, the perplexities, the trials that war 
against your peace ? Remember that Jesus is 
from God, and the consolations of his word 
stand, fast for ever, the pledges of his love shall 
never fail. Sustain your soul cn the promises 
of his grace, and it shall not be moved. His 
revelation offers you a celestial spirit's wings to 
raise you above the world, and if you will re- 
ceive them strong in faith, unwavering in the 
conviction that Jesus is the Christ of God, and 
his authority over you supreme, you will expe- 



16 



rienee in yourselves and you will prove to the 
world, that he who believeth this is born of God, 
and he who is born of God overcometh the sin 
and sorrow of the world. 

But now woe to the folly of self-deception in 
the estimate of our compliance with the condi- 
tion ! Sorrow for the misery of a most common, 
but a most fatal delusion, which is spreading 
darkness and the snares of death over some of 
the bright regions of Christendom ! Alas for 
the vanity of the heart of man ! the sluggishness 
of uninquiring presumption ! the spiritual com- 
placency, yet affected humility, of resting in spe- 
culative faith. Faith it is indeed termed ; a dead 
faith you may hear it called, but it is in reality 
no faith at all, no true belief, or else it would act 
itself out. Brethren, we may pride ourselves 
in vapouring through the world as champions of 
the faith, and scorn to doubt, as we scorn to 
listen to opposing argument, but all the time 
every impartial observer may with grief be 
obliged to doubt for us, for feck of those fruits of 
faith which alone prove it genuine. These are 
the test, and I beseech you be not satisfied with- 
out them. By these alone may you have un- 
questionable evidence that you do believe, when 
your belief speaks out for itself, with the free 
and uncontrolled power of cheerful habit, in the 
steady performance of your Christian duties. 
If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are 
born of God and overcome the world, for if you 



17 



truly and deeply and undoubtingly believe this, 
you feel that when he commands, it is God com- 
mands, and you dare not turn away at the peril 
of your souls from that voice which shakes the 
heavens and the earth. Receiving him, we re- 
ceive him who sent him ; and then we cannot, 
must not, will not sin ; we are born of God, 
and the world is at our feet. Thanks be to God 
who giveth us the victory, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

But I would now humbly confine your atten- 
tion to the singleness of the profession indispen- 
sable to Christian communion. He that be- 
lieveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. 
The acknowledgment of his divine authority 
constitutes a Christian, as far as belief is con- 
cerned. Other points are of great, but yet of 
secondary importance : his miracles, prophecies, 
resurrection, &c. are subservient to this convic- 
tion ; they prove him to be the Messiah. All 
who hold this, if God be true, hold the head. 

Among other advantages of the simplicity of 
this creed, we have to thank God for being fur- 
nished in it with an easy and intelligible princi- 
ple of union which might bind all Christendom 
together, round the globe and through all time. 
We know who is a brother in Christ. I ask 
not assent to perplexing dogmas expressed in the 
language of men. I inquire not whether you 
have studied metaphysics. I do not reservedly 
draw back, until I have taken the gauge with my 
c 2 



\ 



18 



measure of the length and breadth and depth of 
your theological system, and weighed in my 
balance the results of your inquiries in what 
does not touch the supreme authority of the 
Gospel. But, brother, believest thou in Christ ? 
and I take you by the hand, and we are one al- 
ready in what lies nearest to our hearts. 

It is on this principle, that the communion 
table of this church is spread for all who love 
our Lord Jesus Christ. In this, it is known 
we differ from many churches ; which, not satis- 
fied with the simple creed which appears to us so 
conformable to scriptural and primitive usage, 
in addition to the belief that Jesus is the Christ, 
require assent to more than 300 propositions. 
While we pretend not to impeach their motives, 
and believe them conscientious, we must still think 
the ill effects of this are obvious, and not so obvi- 
ous as certain. The morose and exclusive temper 
is confirmed by conscientious illiberality ; and the 
meek and amiable spirit of christian candour is 
bound by the principles of its church to needless 
fears for a brother whom it cannot convince, and 
has to endure the melancholy and somewhat pa- 
radoxical pain of pitying in despair, where still 
it pretends not to impute a crime. Surely the 
world, with its selfish interests and jealous rival- 
ries, drives men far enough apart : why force 
the gentle religion of peace to come into the un- 
holy tumult, and with sanctions which consci- 
ence dares not disavow, aggravate and multiply 



19 



the hostilities of hearts already inflamed with 
demoniacal passions ? Let us at least have one 
subject on which all can be at peace. Let us 
have one interest in which we may feel that we 
are too deeply concerned in common not to har- 
monize in the pursuit. Let us have one quiet 
place to which we may resort without losing the 
temper of the Christian ; and there, throwing 
aside resentment, animosity and strife, kindle 
and cherish universal love, as the children of the 
same good father, travelling along the same flin- 
ty road, directing our weary footsteps to the same 
everlasting mansion of rest and joy. 

This is what you have aimed at, my hearers, 
in the constitution of your society : and I con- 
gratulate you on the privileges you enjoy ; pri- 
vileges with which providence has blessed you 
without requiring the heavy price of a sudden 
disruption of all the ties and associations which 
naturally endear that house of God to our hearts, 
to which the footsteps of our happy childhood 
have followed those whom w r e first loved, and in 
which we have left their tombs and memorials 
to see them no more. Your gift is peculiar, and 
you will not fail to remember that, to whom 
much has been given, of them will proportiona- 
lly much be required. I feel called upon on this 
occasion to trouble you with but one suggestion, 
which yet you may think the principles which 
distingusih you render peculiarly unnecessary-* 
The Churches around repel you from their fel- 



20 



lowship. This cannot but be a greater evil to 
them than to you ; for from it may be expected, 
at least in some degree, the unsocial influences 
that make religion unamiable. But though yon 
are free from the first action of such feelings, 
you may be provoked to the unworthy and equal- 
ly pernicious reaotion of resentful retaliation. 
Be on your guard. It least becomes you to re- 
compence evil for evil. It is particularly incum- 
bent on you, if it be possible, as much as lieth 
in you, to live peaceably with all men. Dearly 
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give 
place unto wrath. Trust in him who judgeth 
righteously, and be not overcome of evil, but 
overcome evil with good. Recollect, the opinions 
of men, however erroneous, however illiberal 
they may seem to us, are still a sacred thing, a 
privileged sanctuary not to be profaned by an- 
gry intrusion. Should one of us, therefore, see 
reason to adopt the sentiments of those who dif- 
fer from us, — and it seems but fair to say the 
same, should one of them come over to us, — re- 
gard him with the mild aspect which becomes the 
conscientiousness of our frailty and ignorance. 
His motives you cannot know. His heart is 
open but to one eye. To his own Master he 
standeth or falleth ; who art thou that judgest the 
servant of another ? For what he does he knows 
that he must give account before the judgment 
seat of God : why should men oppress him with 
their premature inquisition and impatient revi- 



ling ? Brethren, we have something else to do 
besides passing sentence on one another here \ 
let us thank God, this invidious duty is not im 
posed on us. 

With regard to those, from whom we lament 
that we are separated by opinions which we 
dare not hazard our souls by relinquishing, were 
it not like presumption in such as I am, it would 
give me pleasure to bear most willing testimony 
to the many and great excellencies I have fonnd 
among them. Notwithstanding what I think, I 
am warranted by experience in terming the un- 
gracious social influence of their system, I have 
experienced in them, with a frequency to which 
I delight to recur, the exercise of virtues such 
as the world cannot exceed, and of which deep 
christian piety alone could be the spring. Shall 
we not love such christians wherever they may 
be found ? And shall we not look up to him 
who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on 
the good, and practise the more difficult and 
more peculiarly christian grace of charity, even 
to the uncharitable ? Life is not lonsr enough to 
be wasted in contention. While we are inflam- 
ing our hearts with the rancour of unhallowed 
disputation, eternity stands waiting for us ; — 
stands waiting ! do we say ? It comes sweeping 
on nearer and nearer continually, and we silent- 
ly and imperceptibly draw nigh to inevitable so- 
lemnities. Brethren, the time is short : — to our 
task then, to our task for heaven, 'as ever in our 



22 



great taskmaster's eye. 5 It may be well for us 
to remember, for us who are to stand or fall, 
when worlds shall be passing away, by the judg- 
ment of the meek and lowly Jesus, — that the 
only spirit to which he gives his sanction is the 
spirit of the lamb and of the dove, the emblems 
of his grace. It may be well to bear in mind, 
that he rebuked the impetuous zeal of Peter, 
when he drew his sword even in his Lord's de« 
fence ; and when he would prove his fitness for 
the office of highest apostle in his church, he 
asked him not, 'wilt thou fight for my name?' 
but gently, ' Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
me?' So, Christians, happy will it be for us, 
if we can truly give the answer of the apostle, 
'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee ; ? thou 
knowest that I love thee and have shown my 
love, in loving all those of whom thou saidst, 
* Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have 
done an act of kindness to one of the least of my 
brethren; you have done it unto me/ Happy, 
thrice happy shall we be to receive this commen- 
dation from him oil that day when 6 three words 
spoken in charity shall be found to avail us more 
than a library of controversy.' Controversy ! 
let it be with our own hearts, with our evil pro- 
pensities ; against the dexterous logic of the sin 
that doth so easily beset us ; against the insi- 
dious pleas of base self-interest ; against the elo- 
quent rhetoric of impetuous passions. 

Then shall we be saved, when the Lord shall 



23 



have his controversy with the wicked. Then 
shall we be saved already ; saved from the do- 
minion of sin that worketh death, the great sal- 
vation which Jesus came to effect. 

Friends, strive for this, and the peace of God 
be with you in your efforts. 



FINIS. 



LATELY PUBLISHED, 

THE SECOND EDITION, PRICE SIX-PENCE, 

The Superior Tendency of Unitarianism, to form an Elevated 
Religious Character, 

A DISCOURSE, 

PREACHED 

At the Dedication of the Second Congregational Unitarian 
Church, New York, December 7, 1026, 

By WILLIAM ELLERY CHAINING, D. D. 



ALSO, 

IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO, IN BOARDS, 

PRICE TEN SHILLINGS, 

TWENTY-FOUR SERMONS, 

On Interesting Subjects, 
By the Rev. J. S. BUCKMINSTER, 

LATE OF BOSTON, AMERICA, 



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